DC and Lego have teamed for an app that offers all-new, all-free comics.

This could be significant, for reasons explained below.

The LEGO Hero Factory app was created by DC but sponsored by Lego. It’s free for iOS and offers comics based on LEGO Hero Factory, a website that ties in multiple heroic LEGO brands like Ninjago, DC, and so on. Some are free, while other can be downloaded for 99¢.

The app will include familiar DC all-ages comics including The Batman Adventures, Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, Young Justice, Tiny Titans, Teen Titans and Superman Adventures.

“LEGO Hero Factory is all about building heroes so it’s the perfect match for an app that also features DC Comics Super Heroes,” stated Hank Kanalz, senior vice president of digital for DC Entertainment in a statement. “We’ve had a great, longstanding relationship with LEGO Systems and we’re really excited to bring these comics to kids through the LEGO Hero Factory app.”
DC already produced licensed comics based on Lego’s now discontinued Bionicle line that were among the most distributed of the past decade, with hundreds of thousands of copies distributed, so you can see why both DC and Lego would want to keep this relationship alive. And putting their superhero branded comics in a hugely popular platform like Lego is a smart move. Doing it digitally is even more interesting.

Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.